Walt Disney Co.
DIS 0.38%
shares surged to an all-time high Friday, as investors and analysts cheered the opportunity for Disney+, the newest addition to the company’s suite of streaming services, to win subscribers in an increasingly crowded landscape.

Stock in the California entertainment company rose 12% to $130.06, breaking the previous intraday record set in August of 2015, bringing gains this year to 18%.

Within its first year, the streaming service will offer more than 7,500 episodes of television and 25 episodic series, alongside more than 100 recent movies and 400 library titles, Disney said. There will be nine original pieces of content at launch on Nov. 12, and 25 in the first year, from the Disney Channel, Marvel, National Geographic and its Star Wars production company, Lucasfilm Ltd.

The company expects Disney+ to have between 60 million and 90 million subscribers by the end of fiscal 2024, which was ahead of estimates from several analysts.
JPMorgan Chase
& Co. analysts said in a research note Disney’s subscriber projection was at the high-end of their expectations. With the $6.99 price point for Disney+, JPMorgan analysts said they expect an early surge of subscribers when the service launches.

Disney+ is slated to join sports-centered streaming service ESPN+ and Hulu, which has more than 25 million subscribers.

Shares of rival Netflix Inc. tumbled about 3.5% Friday, as investors weighed the latest entrant into the battle for streaming customers. Netflix had 139 million paid members world-wide as of Dec. 31.

Disney’s acquisition of a majority stake in streaming technology company BAMTech LLC in 2017 helped fuel its streaming ambitions, Chief Executive
Robert Iger
said in an interview aired Friday on CNBC. Mr. Iger said, that without BAMTech, Disney wouldn’t have bought the entertainment assets of 21st Century Fox, giving the company access to content including titles such as “The Simpsons.”

“The light bulb went off,” Mr. Iger said referring to the Fox assets. “We evaluated what we are buying through this new lens.”

The cable industry is undergoing a major transformation, as more Americans cut the cord on their cable subscriptions and flock to streaming services like Hulu and Netflix. So how did we get here? Illustration: Shaumbe Wright/WSJ

WSJ opens select articles to reader conversation to promote thoughtful dialogue. See the 'Join the Conversation' area to the rightbelow for stories open to conversation. For more information, please reference our community guidelines. Email feedback and questions to moderator@wsj.com.